Below is a Strategy Report for Bebo/AOL for Proximity’s social networking team. Previously well known for its subscription-based online software suite, AOL has since spun off from Time Warner and purchased Bebo, as part of a strategy of moving away from subscription-base revenue model towards a driven media site(Wikipedia 2010). Bebo, is designed as a worldwide social media network. Since social networking took off (use better wording) in the market, companies such as Yahoo, Google and AOL all drive to use these platforms as a key vehicle of advertisement to increase future revenue.
Profile Bought by AOL in March of 2008, Bebo is a global social networking site similar to many (Wikipedia 2010). The concept for Bebo was derived from the slogan"Blog early blog often” (Wikinews). (Information not needed. This quote was given to describe Bebo as more of a networking site. Bebo was founded by Michael and Xochi Birch in 2005 and is based out of San Francisco, California. Currently, Bebo has over 40 (forty) million active users internationally and prides itself on being the only social networking gone global. AOL’s purchase of Bebo was intended to capture the Internet traffic from social networkers to drive users to AOL-related content sites, driving up advertising demand and therefore, becoming the driving force towards future AOL.(Wikinews).
CompetitiveLandscape
AOL/Bebo’s competitive landscape is driven by the following forces:
· Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites that offer similar applications
· Fear of a competitor going global or providing more enhanced, easy access applications
· Combining legacy users familiar with the AOL suite of products into a competitive and dynamic social networking site
AOL/Bebo’sStrategy
Currently, Bebo prides itself on being the world’s first and only international social networking site (Wikinews). Since AOL is moving from a subscription base strategy process to more of a digital media business market AOL hopes to bring in large volume of traffic via Bebo to attract advertising dollars to replace their subscription revenues and to derive most of their revenue from advertisements (Venturebeat 2010).
Gen-YImplications
· What applications would make Bebo better than Facebook?
· What would drive you to AOL/ Bebo over Facebook?
· What features or content contained in the AOL user community could be transferred to the Bebo community to further divert traffic away from Facebook and other social networking sites? I believe that AOL/Bebo could further profit by continuing to focusing on advertising on social media networking sites and supplementing the Bebo site with the host of content that was available to previous AOL users (too wordy). AOL survived for many years due to its loyal customer base despite connectivity issues and competition from popular sites like Yahoo and Google. The key to that survival was a sense of community due to rich content and similar characteristics that has made today’s social networking sites popular (Kind of confusing to read).
Mostly Green/Edited by Christina Thur
I edited twice since we can re-submit for a better grade.
Below is a Strategy Report for Bebo/AOL for Proximity’s social networking team. Previously well known for its subscription-based online software suite, AOL has since spun off from Time Warner and purchased Bebo, as part of a strategy of moving away from subscription-base revenue model towards a driven media site(Wikipedia 2010). Bebo, is designed as a worldwide social media network. Since social networking took off (use better wording) in the market, companies such as Yahoo, Google and AOL all drive to use these platforms as a key vehicle of advertisement to increase future revenue.
Profile
Bought by AOL in March of 2008, Bebo is a global social networking site similar to many (Wikipedia 2010). The concept for Bebo was derived from the slogan"Blog early blog often” (Wikinews). (Information not needed. This quote was given to describe Bebo as more of a networking site. Bebo was founded by Michael and Xochi Birch in 2005 and is based out of San Francisco, California. Currently, Bebo has over 40 (forty) million active users internationally and prides itself on being the only social networking gone global. AOL’s purchase of Bebo was intended to capture the Internet traffic from social networkers to drive users to AOL-related content sites, driving up advertising demand and therefore, becoming the driving force towards future AOL.(Wikinews).
Competitive Landscape
AOL/Bebo’s competitive landscape is driven by the following forces:
· Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking sites that offer similar applications
· Fear of a competitor going global or providing more enhanced, easy access applications
· Combining legacy users familiar with the AOL suite of products into a competitive and dynamic social networking site
AOL/Bebo’s Strategy
Currently, Bebo prides itself on being the world’s first and only international social networking site (Wikinews). Since AOL is moving from a subscription base strategy process to more of a digital media business market AOL hopes to bring in large volume of traffic via Bebo to attract advertising dollars to replace their subscription revenues and to derive most of their revenue from advertisements (Venturebeat 2010).
Gen-Y Implications
· What applications would make Bebo better than Facebook?
· What would drive you to AOL/ Bebo over Facebook?
· What features or content contained in the AOL user community could be transferred to the Bebo community to further divert traffic away from Facebook and other social networking sites?
I believe that AOL/Bebo could further profit by continuing to focusing on advertising on social media networking sites and supplementing the Bebo site with the host of content that was available to previous AOL users (too wordy). AOL survived for many years due to its loyal customer base despite connectivity issues and competition from popular sites like Yahoo and Google. The key to that survival was a sense of community due to rich content and similar characteristics that has made today’s social networking sites popular (Kind of confusing to read).
Mostly Green/Edited by Christina Thur
I edited twice since we can re-submit for a better grade.
References
Thomas Ruters (2010) MSN Money February 26, 2010 http://moneycentral.msn.com/detail/stock_quote?Symbol=aol
Wikinews (March 15, 2008) Exclusive Look at Bebo February 26, 2010 http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Exclusive_look_at_Bebo
Dean Takahashi (December 13, 2009) AOL talks to sell ICQ DST; Bebo also on the block February 26, 2010.http://digital.venturebeat.com/2009/12/13/aol-in-talks-to-sell-icq-to-dst-bebo-also-on-the-block/
Wikipedia (2010) AOL February 26 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bebo
Wikipedia (2010) Bebo February 26 2010 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL